Automobile-tire.



W. F. HAAS.

AUTOMOBILE TIRE.

APPLIOQXTION FIL Patented` June 3, 191,3.

NMS muni-M Lwuymmmm D c WILLIAM F. HAAS, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

AUTOMOBILE-Tran.

Specification of Letters'Patent.

Patenten June e, rara.

Application led December 29, 1910. Serial No. 599,975.

To all whom z' may concern Be it knovvn thatI, WILLrAM F.. HAAs, acitizen of the United States, residing at Hartford,inthe -county'ofHartfrd and State of Connecticut, have invented a neviT and useful`Improvement in Automobile- Tires, ofvvhich the following is a`specifica,

This invention relates to a tire or tire shoe which is formed mainly ofa knitted fabric.-

'Various styles of Woven fabrics for reinforcing tires and shoes havebeen proposed. The tire shoes in common use, have,

embedded in the rubber Vfor imparting4 strength, one or more layers lofvcanvas or the likewvoven fabric, usually cut on the bias from a flatweb and formed with abutting oroverlapping edges into a ring.- It isdifficult tostretch such a fabric, when -,it

is hard Woven, 'soth'at it will have the ree quired concave-convexannularV form.I If' the. edges abut, there are localities having lessstrength than the remainder of the'tire, and if the edges areoverlapped, there are places of .greater thickness of fabric and less ofrubber, and. consequently the body does not have uniform strength ofreinforcout. lIt has also been proposed to reinforce.

ing material to prevent blow-outs. In such tires .there is not anabsolutely uniform thickness of rubber, and furthermore canvas and thelike hard Woven fabric isV not yielding'fand flexible andfdoes notreadily andevenly absorb or become penetratedby th rubber when the tireis made. It has been suggested that the reinforcement for the rubber ofa tire or shoe may be made from a tubular knitted fabric that is slittedlongitudinally, but such is Weak at the edges, for, cutting the tubularknitted fabric in this manner severs the Warp threads into many shortlengths, rendering the edges'unmanageable and liable to fray a tire orshoe with a fabric knitted flat and of .varying'thickness, in .orderthat the sections supposed to be subjected tothe greatest strain in useWill have the most strength,

tube .in order that the inner part Fmay be tight, which results in aloss of strength and durability and causes a variable thickness.

The object of this invention isito Vovercome these objections andV formavery resilient, yet strong and durable tire or shoe,

fwhioh is light in weight, thereby producing at a less cost than thepresent tire or shoe, one having equally'desirable if not betterqualities. This end is attained, according to this invention, by formingla tire or shoe of one,.or more layers of endless circular Webs, builtone upon the other and impregnated with suitable cement or rubber untilthe required thickness of tire or shoe is obtained. These Webs areknitted in annular shape of a diameter a little less than the ,diameterof "the finished article, and of a width approximately equal to theperipheral length ofthe cross section of the tire. They may fbe` knittedin 4a continuous tube on a circular machine having thedesireddiameteig-andt-he tube may be cut across the web in suitable Widths to4form the several layers. When cut in this manner across the Web ortransverselyV of the knitting, the Warp thread is' cut but once on eachside so that the edges Willbe strong and manageable, and have notendency to fray out. T' his method provides n body which is veryflexible, yet tough and durable. Such a circular body, `Without lap orseam, is easily stretched to the desired form and is capable Vof readilyand uniformly absorbing the cen n l, v sisting 1n securing the tire orshoe 1n place on the Wheel. Furthermore, when the body `is formed ofseveral superposed layers of such a fabric, as the ribs or the chain ofthe knitting stitchl run transversely of thetire, if the layers-arereversed with relation to each other, the knitting ribs'interlock andprevent one layer from stretching and loosening itself from the other.Such a body as this may have Wires or other rings fas-- tened in itsedges, and after being stretched upon an expansible former, which isused to give it th'e required shape, it is impregnated with thecenientingmaterial and held in this manner until the cementing'Inaterial has solidified to the desired degree.

lfastening wires or rings provided for asused to build up the body ofthe shoe according to this invention. Fig. 5 shows a longitudinalsect-ion of a short length of two layers of knitted fabric put togetheraccording to a preferred manner of practising the invention, theknitting stitches being opened for the purpose of illustration.

In forming a tire or shoe according to this invention, one or morecircular Webs 1 of approximately the diameter of the wheel, are knittedof one or more strands, yarns, or Warp threads (preferably cotton), on acommon form of knitting machine of the rcqulred size. These circularWebs, having approximately the diameter of the Wheel, w ich lare endless.and Without seam, are knit to the Adesired width of each strip, as isthe short section 2 of strip shown in Fig. 4, or the knitting may beproceeded with to produce a tube of any desired length, and

this tube may be cut transversely to produce the strips of the desiredwidth. The width of t-hese strips is equal to the length of theperiphery 3 of the cross section of the tire or shoe with enough addedto Wrap about the fastening Wires 4. lV hen formed in this manner,either by knitting to the exact Width, orby severing a knitted tubetransversely into pieces of the exact width, the warp yarn or thread issevered but once on each side. Knitting in this manner re- .sults in theproduction of a. circular, endless and seamless web of approximately thediameter of the tire, with the ribs 5 or chain of the knitting stitchextending transversely of the strip, as shown in Fig. 4, and withfinished uncut edges. Several of such circular,` endless and seamlessWebs are superposed upon a form and stretched out t0 the desirediinislied diameter. Stretching theJfabric Tn this manner causes thechain ribs, lWhich extend transversely, to separate'` f' ,from eachother so that the chain ribs of the .different layers will interlockwhen the webs i are superposed. The webs formed in this. 'manner have agreater capacity for stretching on the outside periphery and contractingalong tneiinner edges than webs formed in any other manner, that is withthe chain or ribs running longitudinally around the tire. Aftersuiicient number of layers of circular webs have been built up to givethe re quired thickness of body, they are impregnated with lthe desiredCementing material which may be rubber, a compound of rubber, or othermaterial. Eitherl before or after the cementing material is applied,preferably before, the edges are'secured to the Wire rings 4 in anydesired manner, in order to provide annular flanges which may beutilized for fastening the tire or shoe in place upon the Wheel in thecommon manner. When the cementing material is suitably solidified, thetire or shoe is removed .from the former and is ready for use.

This method of forming a tire of superposed layers of endless, circularWebs or webs 'Without lap or seam cemented together, produces a tire orshoe that is much more iexible, stronger and tougher than one con#taining bias cut canvas. The circular knit web affords more protectionagainst a blowout than a bias cut canvas or a flat knitted web havingabutting or overlapping edges, or a circular knitted web cut,longitudinally and having its edges fastened together. Such areinforcement as this allows the rubber or other .cement to penetratethe material much more than is possible with canvas or any Wovenmaterial. This tough yet elastic body which is uniform in thickness andWithout lap or seam and has firm edges and is thoroughly permeated withthe ccmenting compound, being very flexible as Well as tough, is quitelight, yet has great Wearing qualities. Beside lproducing a tire havingthese desirable qualities, this method is comparatively simple,resulting in va relatively cheap tire.

The Ainvention claimed is:

A tire or shoe comprising superposedlayers of endless, circular, knittedbands, each Without lap or seam, said bands being formed of a continuousthread or yarn knitted in a circle of a diameter substantially the sameas the diameter of the tire or shoe, and having the ribs or chain of theknitting stitch extending transversely of the bands, whereby the threadsor yarns are not. severed at the edges of the bands,'and a resilientcementing compound impregnating the superposed bands. Y

Y WILLIAM F. HAAS.

" Witnesses:

' J osnrnnvn M.I Srnniurrnn,

H. R. WILLIAMS.

